The current World Champion isn’t performing well on the Players Championship this week. Luke Humphries lost in round 2 of the first tournament 6-0 against Ian White and a day later he lost the first round 6-5 to Jurjen van der Velde. He was so angry with himself he decided to break his darts right after the game as you can see in the footage below.
The form on that stem snap was fantastic, I’ve not seen someone snap their stems that well in ages pic.twitter.com/r2SgWzSWRu
— Jack (@TheDartsReferee) February 13, 2024
The day before, Humphries suffered a 6-0 defeat against Ian White in the second round, indicating a lack of form for Cool Hand Luke since winning the world title. He has also seen little success in the Premier League, securing only one victory against Peter Wright, who is also experiencing a dip in form, but losing twice to Luke Littler.
In contrast to Humphries, the 17-year-old has been in excellent form since the PDC World Championship final. He won the Bahrain Darts Masters and claimed victory in Players Championship 1 earlier this week. Additionally, he reached the finals of the Dutch Darts Masters and a Premier League evening, where he conceded twice to Michael van Gerwen.
Another Premier League night is scheduled for Thursday, with Luke Humphries facing Nathan Aspinall in the opening match, and Luke Littler awaiting a meeting with Gerwyn Price in the quarterfinal.
During the week, The Iceman expressed his opinion on the ‘dreadful conditions’ they had to play under at the Players Championships in Wigan. After securing two wins on the first day, he withdrew from the match against Brendan Dolan when trailing 4-2, expressing his dissatisfaction on social media.
“When I was 4-2 down, I shook hands with the Northern Irishman, put away my darts, and then left. The next day, I didn’t play anymore. Absolutely miserable conditions here. I came all the way here only to compete in amateurish conditions. I have never stopped in the middle of a match because it’s always fine. But now I had no choice,” said The Iceman.
Other players seemed to be less affected, as three 9-darters were thrown on that day.